~BRAVE~ (Tanjiro X Reader)

Intruders

"Oof." The weight of another person dropped on me hard. Hands snaked around my waist and I turnedmy head to see who it was. I never really had the liberty to know right away. Thousands of little taps across my stomach had me shake with laughter. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes as I tried to push away the girl who began it all.

"Stop it Nezuko! I can't breathe!" I cried. She hummed in satisfaction of my mood change and sat up on my legs.

"Nezuko, do you think I'm boring?" I asked her while sitting up. Her eyes narrowed in anger and she lightly slapped my head. My hand immediately flew up to try and mask the pain.

Her eyes read 'don't you dare think like that!' It was clear on her face. I wanted nothing more than to have someone look at me like that 24/7.

"You're right I'm sorry. Let's take a nap?" I offered. She put her finger up to her chin in question, then nodded vigorously. I swore if this girl never woke up from one of her naps then it would be her own fault. Dying of sleep. What a peaceful way to go.

The hours passed and every so often I could hear the pitter-pater of steps outside of our bedroom. But I could not sleep. My mind would remind me of all the silly little things I had done as a child that made me into the person I am today. Things such as my first time learning the movements of the dance of the petal. My gods, that was a disaster.

My Father had tried to teach it to me back then but I always stumbled over my own two feet. The memory made me smile. Thinking about how happy we were.

The moment he passed away, it was like we couldn't see. Our eyes remained empty for the longest time. Mother no longer told me stories. Diakoku brought light back to us by introducing the technique. He would always sneak off somewhere during the day then came back with new things to teach. All of these little moments danced around in my head preventing my sleep.

If I were to dream of these moments once more, then I would want to die right then and there. Nothing could bring back what had been lost. But I had a responsibility to my family name. I could not let it perish with my simple feelings.

"(Y/n)!" I heard someone scream. It was faint. Far away. But it didn't go unheard. The voice screamed again. It was clear that it was not just one voice, but that of three girls. My door crashed open and the girls were sweating and breathing hard with dismay written on their faces. Nezuko remained sleeping. Probably using her sleep to gain strength again.

"They caught Aoi by surprise and they got her!"

"Who got her?"

"The men! They're roaming around the estate! They broke in." One of the girls cried. I had already forgotten their names.

"Do the patients know? Is Anybody else here? Shinobu? Kanao?" I got my sword and grabbed onto it tightly. Invaders were not my specialty.

"Just us."

"Hide. Go to the boy's room. Hide there. Tell them not to come out no matter what unless they approach the room." I walked out of the room with my sword in hand. It was silent. Had they tricked me? I continued to walk through the halls. My steps were silent. I couldn't even hear my own breath.

"Get her!" I hear a battle cry come from above. I jumped out of the path of the intruder and turned around. They were dressed in a full black haori. A mask shielding their face. Reminded me of the swordsmiths.

"You've got my friend. I want her back."

"Your friend is quite adamant of getting out of our care. She's weak. I'm assuming you are too?" The man slashes his sword forward and I use his own weight to make him fall.

"Your stance is horrible, posture inadequate, and the way you hold your sword is peculiar. It's clear you haven't held one before." My foot on the back of his neck prevented him from going any further. "How did someone like you get a hold of Aoi?"

"It wasn't me."

Another person rushed at me from around the corner. Yet again another sword. I didn't even unsheathe my own. I used the case of my sword and swatted at the pressure point at the knee. The impact caused the man to fall next to his friend.

"Are you serious? This is too easy. How many more of you?" I laughed out. The men grumbled at my feet.

"Just me sweetheart." This man went undetected. The sound of a loud bang filled the air. I clutched my arm in pain. Something had scraped my arm. What the hell? He waved a gun around in the air. I unsheathe my sword.

"You don't need a gun to kill someone," My blood falls onto my sword and I freeze at the sight. It reminded me of Diakoku. When I killed him. The sword felt like it was burning in my hand. I screamed in pain and dropped it quickly. The men looked at me confused, but I didn't care. My focus was on the blade with blood. I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Aoi snuck up behind the man with the gun and hit him in the head with a frying pan. She dusted her hands on her uniform before looking over at me. She rushed to my side and I could hear the others coming too. Inosuke knocked the two intruders out. Aoi took me out of view from the sword. Once Aoi was by my side, everyone else came from the boy's room.

"It's her PTSD. From Diakoku. It's going to take some time to get over. She needs to train more with it." Aoi told Tanjiro and Zenitsu who were by my side. My eyes were blank once again. I couldn't see anything except that sword.

The three girls dragged those men out of the estate and stole all of their weapons to be held in their storage. Just to make sure they did not get to anybody else. The boys stuck around in Nezuko and I's room until they had to go to bed. Tanjiro staid for a little longer though.

Nezuko had woken up from all of the commotion and snuggled into her brother's lap as he played with her hair. I watched the two converse. Talking about little things, like hair cuts or food. Obviously, Nezuko only hummed her responses but Tanjiro pretended to know what she was saying. I laughed a bit just thinking about it. "Tanjiro?" I asked. His attention diverted from his sister to me in an instant.

"Yes?" His head tilted to the side and I looked away a bit flustered at his cuteness and the sudden attention.

"I don't mean to be rude, but why do you kill demons if your sister is a demon herself?" Halfway through my question, I looked back at him to find me still staring at me. He then put his head down in contemplation. My hands started to fidget with each other in nervousness.

"I guess it's my drive to turn Nezuko back into a human." He said, nodding in acceptance to his own answer while crossing his arms. "What about you? Why do you kill demons?"

My eyes widened. I never really thought about it myself. I just went along with what Diakoku had done and never complained. "I'm not sure. Maybe...to put them out of their misery? They were once human too and some demons try desperately to turn back. Like Nezuko. But the other demons still kill others for their own sake. She's just more fortunate to have all these people helping her." I smile at the girl who looks at me and crawls over to my bed to hold my hand while she rolls around on the floor. "Or I do it for revenge for all the people they've murdered. Who wants to get killed by a demon? No one. It's the worst way to die." My smile falls weakly and I look to the ground. My face fell empty once more.

Tanjiro got up from his place on the floor and took Nezuko's place in my hand. He gripped my hand hard with his own. "You don't do it for yourself. And from what I've seen, you don't even think about yourself. You do things for the sake of others. But...don't you think you could be selfish? I mean look at us we're just teens. And you're over here already acting like an adult. It's okay to be selfish. I don't ever want you to forget that." His hold on my hand ended and he started to walk back to his own room. My face flushed at the thought on how close his face was to mine, and how tightly he held my hand. I looked at my hand with thought. Selfish? I've been selfish before. With Diakoku, I was selfish about his death. I didn't want anyone to hurt him. That's selfish right? In his mind, I don't think that's classified as selfish

Nezuko Followed her brother to the door, and he gave her some head pats before he exited the room. She hummed in joy and proceeded to come over to my own bed to go to sleep. I don't even know why they bothered getting her own bed set up. She liked to sleep with me. Probably because I was warm. Sleep came hard. My mind kept on going back to Tanjiro.
_________________________________
Original release date: May 17 2020